ICS March 2012 : Page 10

ICS eMedia An Offline Look at What’s Happening Online For more go to www.icsmag.com Don’t Let Your Employees Hold You Hostage Remember, good policies and procedures known by everyone will also help people be effective at your company and demonstrate they’re worthy of more compensation. Good policies and procedures are designed to empower people to handle what comes up 80% of the time successfully. Think positively about your staff and yes, even learn how to love them… then… create a fair set of rules to play by. Make sure they get a voice in how you do your work, as well. This is what builds buy-in and longevity at your company. Ultimately, everyone will win. — From “Five O’clock Knock” on the ICS Blog Spot The ICSmag.com Web Poll: The No. 1 move I’m making for 2012 is: Accelerating the Information Exchange (With QR Codes) To begin using QR codes, you first need to think about your customer. tart by accepting the fact that only a small percentage of the population -not to mention your customer base -even knows what they are, much less have the hardware to use them. Given that fact, what would a tech-savvy customer want to get from your QR code? My answer would be some type of immediate interaction. A link to your website might suffice, but unless your website is interactive itself, this might become a dead end. I say that simply because brain function is required on the part of the consumer to navigate your website and find the desired interaction. Don’t think I’m insulting your customers’ intelligence; after all, they do have a smart phone. Just remember that if they are the type person who will scan a QR code, then they’re looking for immediate results and interaction. They simply don’t want to take the time to find what you were hoping they would find by navigating a complex data bank. 21.43% Increasing carpet protector up-sells: 28.57% Adding new specializations to our cleaning offerings: 21.43% Raising our prices: 21.43% Adding personnel and/or expanding our service area: 7.14% Nothing-what I’m doing is working just fine: Editorial Reprints Nas ators is a cert hvil le loca in dev iﬁ ed tion elopm Master and ent Wat www of cou er .icsma across Nor rses Rest th Am and orer, WL g.com Fisher S and eric curriculum. a. You — 0308_F_155.indd the MAR Edu He can CH cati e-m teac 2008 on ail him hes 14 App Pro at kev lied jects Ma inf@ Structural nag er with dri-eaz .com Drying Dri-Eaz and . Wat Prod er Rest ucts . oration Kev 14 rying scien van rial ced ce There item in where has to ad-to ach are ma a stru nearly the poi ctu ure int down, ny too nt iev e re can any prof hiev ma is bey and at the essional drying ls and be dri te-by b ond particleboar goa wil techn ed. Kev be dri ir dis will Cost have ls, in Fis pos l hav iques t is repair choosing ative ed, the al. Sinc e all of and a her the are all d furnitur true dryi crit the cost ﬁ nal discar a ng is ical e everyt se tool too consideration ded. e that it. For less to drying consider Fa cto “Sh question hing ls s dry ould meh method. can ors example, tion exam an item “Should it be in res On rs to C th that question. tor-in Co $1,500 d dried? t loss e of a base than It must is affected it be nsider n the i is h out ” the dried?” cabinet to replace determining to replace. the ﬁ rst after If restoration cabinet structur by water installa-tamination, steps in order is the mined evaluating must Ther the prim primar ated has which e. Then “What in a and to be cost m efor may cost items been damage water the must hand, which is e, less it must wet?” historical wet practical. determining are lev n rule ruled y than drying include remo and el of item if restoration will items business value, in should con-ved. Costs $1,500 costs, con will be deter-is dried. be replacement three On Many interr additional be if a we replaced. be dried, evalu-then hen is the Tw dried, t material factors: of at suppor other restor uption. • Contamination o When wiring and restor ted, er ment. least 50 ers aim After Option • Damage the ers or item and er or making s exceed When percent for a • Cost consider drying begin not to the restor the estimated less than 50 cost evaluating dry decision toration parties er communicates percent costs replace-a material, of Contamination ods for volv wor to wheth-how ﬁ rst threshold, drying ed in ensur ent available k. Ther to begin restor Restor if a consideration must e the openly the combination ers – each e are decision-making temperatur ers the customer with the items material many the res-must always applying manipulation all should when and outcome thor water that meth-of e, be is in-the moving airﬂ humidity a differ-, for are affected be determining the ﬁ nal of this oughly process. Damage dried. example, of the ow and contr decision. communication document airﬂ eration ow ﬁ nish by Por is ol, material physical materials, Restor , perforation, od. when also an must be Categor ous If tained ers impor remo y 3 (e.g. yon a material choosing d ved. tant to help during use the etc.). injection re-from economical or item a drying consid-information of for evaluation the What ceilings, the select the structur repair is damaged meth-job. best is W of e. For , it is insulation ob-Generally drying materials remo be-et? example, Contamination , ther method ved editor that by Jeffrey fallen Kev e are Stouffer, is in of educ Fish packed two Damag er D Ch oo Effe sing ctiv the e D M rying ost Te Te c ch h niq The ICS 2008 Disaster Restoration & Remediation Market Study by Jeffrey Stouffer, editor ue T he ICS Disaster Restoration & Remediation Market Study is an ex-amination of the opinions and preferences of restoration and reme-diation professionals concerning their business. in The driving purpose behind the study is to identify key issues and trends the market based on the opinions, needs and expectations of professional carpet of cleaning and restoration specialists. The total sample for the study consisted S subscribers who cite their primary business as smoke/water ﬁ ed ICS qualiﬁ 3,000 qualiﬁed basis damage restoration specialist. The sample was selected on an Nth-name from the magazine’s domestic circulation. ﬁ ve percent of survey respondents claim either professional carpet Ninety-ﬁ Ninety-ﬁve busi-primary company’s their as restoration cleaning or smoke/water damage re-ness. Residential work makes up 74 percent of the disaster restoration and mediation work respondents perform ( Chart I ). And for 26 percent of respon-of dents, disaster restoration and remediation comprises 50 percent or more their total business. Chart I l ia al ci erc me Comm . Commercial vs. Residential vs n Mean Percentages Per Application 74% 72% r or o do d Odo Odor Aim at O ts Take Ai rts Cost e Exper The Expe RIP Residential 75% 72% T — From the Web Exclusive Feature “QR Codes: Just How Quickly Can Your Customers Find You?” Jennifer Allen Reprint Manager Phone: 800.835.4398 x 2214 4 Fax: 818.224.8042 Email: allenj@bnpmedia.com 52 up the carpet to ful without pulling bacterial so-backing of of antibacterial urine stains on the podermic injection look for H r odors from “High-intensity further o the cleaning professional, lution will prevent the carpet,” T he said. oppor-you ry extraction dry odor control means are very good because developing. Additional UV lights too ﬁ ne a ced to maxi-A the day. Certain tunity. To put not would then be introduced can use them during nose-wrinkling this is completed, not work well in point on it, the same mize removal. Once uorescent lights do ﬂuorescent ﬂ to help plied homeowners to used at night is applied in daytime and must be offensiveness driving an acid ﬁ ber rinse the Tec leads of smell the d. hnician Dri-said. the sweet is dark. Your local distraction carries prevent wicking,” he or when the room Eaz Courses which technician, Univ For the Profes-can help determine ersit Last month in his money for the professional to catch distributor y team Doug at the comp olumn, enough column, savvy is Cleaner you. best for is any if he or she sional Textile light ’s ﬁ cally at urine speciﬁ the scent. Heiferman looked experts across ors, caused by including odors, Year in and year out, problems, ighlighted the highlighted examined the ins the spectrum have household pets, and dissecting tech-– and complete and outs of odor, importance of proper what niques, sales methodology, – detection. and everything of the urine in 2/8/08 “Locate the source works, what doesn’t a compendium of ght instruments. right in between. Here’s the carpet using the ood indicator of experts from ICS a good what some of the The human nose is ofessional can be magazine have had professional Cleaning Specialist odor; however, the to get down on to say on the subject. thankful to not have the surface carpet to locate “As we all know, cleaning for odor the ﬂ oor to smell the solution ” Doug wrote. of a carpet is not the contaminated areas,” columnist Joe ﬁ c ways. A ientiﬁc scientiﬁ removal,” My Two Cents “There are more odors are deeply etector with an detector Domin said. “Carpet quality moisture carpet, usually as n moisture is en-entrenched in the alarm alerts you when spills or ‘accidents’ rument has metal the result of food countered. This instrument carpet and These spills te the by pets and/or children. carpet and probes that penetrate of the or to reveal mois-penetrate to the base padding to the ﬂ oor extrac-surface by , you may miss an cannot be removed ture. Unfortunately cleaning so-nique because test-tion. Even using excessive spill enough area with this technique ﬁ cult difﬁ is difﬁcult the carpet detect urine is e the dilute of not inch will lutions ing every “Another way to removal. and inspect the g. to allow for successful and time consuming. disengage the carpet result in r ultraviolet high-It will take time “The spills will eventually microbial “A black light or backing for stains. from instances, you be used to detect foul odors stemming intensity light can and effort and, in many successfully locate backing anyway d is preferred and is growth. One way to urine. This method will be cleaning the ultraviolet (UV) se it can be success-urine stains is with much easier because is located, a hy-light. Once the stain — www.icsmag.com FEBRUARY 2008 26% Commercial/ Industrial 28% 25% 28% 40% 60% 80% 2007 (n=257) 2006 (n=271) 2005 (n=208) 2004 (n=153) 100% 0% 20% Getting the “Green” Light With Protective Coatings by Brian Bacik Disaster study 0308_F_164.indd 36 2/8/08 1 : : Odor 0208_F_155.indd 52 nother job well done! growth. Others can be baked You’ve saved a building into con-Don’t Get Ge et Gre G ree Green-Washed struction materials to add en n-W Wa as she ed d protection from a disast disastrous trous situa-In today’s “Al Gore Environment” to a building project from tion; the water damage the outset. h been re-has it’s not enough to simply They employ different say you’re solved, the mold is gone, technologies eco-friendly or safe. Consumers and you’ve to protect a surface against passed your indoor air are microbial q quality tests smarter. They’re reading attachment and growth; the labels with ﬂ ying colors. You rea heavy met-really ally stepped and the ﬁ ne print, and als, ammonias, salts or other they’re do-up to the plate this time, chemical ing their research; hence and there’s compounds are often key the growing not a trace of mold to be ingredients fo found. ound. awareness of “green washing,” in these protective concoctions. a term With a look of satisfactio satisfaction coined by consumer and on on your But while corporate most of these products professional rofessional mug, you hand watchdog groups. the invoice claim high levels of efﬁcacy over ver to your client, who ask efﬁ ﬁ cacy and low asks, ks, “So this According to one such organization, levels of toxicity, you – mold’s old’s not coming back righ or your cus-right? “consumers are inundated ht? I mean, tomer – might wonder, “Is with prod-this is is a school, and we can’t this prod-ucts that make green claims. ’t have stu-uct eco-friendly?” or “Will Some are dents nts breathing in mold sp this prod-accurate, certiﬁed spores pores and certiﬁ ﬁ ed and veriﬁ uct harm the kids/pets/ﬁcus?” ﬁ able, while kids/pets/ﬁ parents ents hollering at PTA me ﬁ cus?” meetings.” others are just plain ﬁ bbing eetings.” to sell prod-Of course, as a professiona professional al cleaner, you know that water and d humid-:02:35 AM 1/16/08 11:02:35 ity prevention is the key to o control-ling mold growth. You are a also aware of protective antimicrobial coatings, which can help in the ﬁ gh ght ht against mold. Often used by builders s on new construction projects, these coatings are increasingly incorporated into the arsenals of remediators and cleaning professionals. There are several products Th on the market today, all of which “protect” a surface in different ways. Some are professional-grade chemical com-pounds that are either brushed sprayed onto a surface, post-mold or re-mediation, to block any further mold A Brian Bacik is CEO at Siamons International Inc., the makers tion. Contact Brian at of Concrobium Mold Control, bbacik@siamons.com. an EPA-registered product www.concrobium.com used for 48 mold remediation and preven-www.icsmag.com — MARCH 2008 Bacik 0308_F_156.indd 48 2/8/08 11:43:56 AM 10 Cleaning Specialist | March 2012

eMedia

An Offline Look at What’s Happening Online Don’t Let Your Employees Hold You Hostage Remember, good policies and procedures known by everyone will also help people be effective at your company and demonstrate they’re worthy of more compensation. Good policies and procedures are designed to empower people to handle what comes up 80% of the time successfully. Think positively about your staff and yes, even learn how to love them… then… create a fair set of rules to play by. Make sure they get a voice in how you do your work, as well. This is what builds buy-in and longevity at your company. Ultimately, everyone will win. — From “Five O’clock Knock” on the ICS Blog Spot Accelerating the Information Exchange (With QR Codes) To begin using QR codes, you first need to think about your customer. Tart by accepting the fact that only a small percentage of the population - not to mention your customer base - even knows what they are, much less have the hardware to use them. Given that fact, what would a tech-savvy customer want to get from your QR code? My answer would be some type of immediate interaction. A link to your website might suffice, but unless your website is interactive itself, this might become a dead end. I say that simply because brain function is required on the part of the consumer to navigate your website and find the desired interaction. Don’t think I’m insulting your customers’ intelligence; after all, they do have a smart phone. Just remember that if they are the type person who will scan a QR code, then they’re looking for immediate results and interaction.They simply don’t want to take the time to find what you were hoping they would find by navigating a complex data bank. — From the Web Exclusive Feature “QR Codes: Just How Quickly Can Your Customers Find You?”

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